Thursday, September 10, 2009

Peppers (Capsicum species and cultivars) are the stars of Powell Gardens this weekend with the return of our Pepper Festival. See our website http://www.powellgardens.org/ for complete details of the events activities. One thing we are bringing back is the "wheel of fire" which is meant to be a fun way to watch people and peppers interact. As vegetable gardeners well know, peppers range from sweet and tame to veritable fruits as hot as a flame. The wheel of fire is a free game where contestants can spin the wheel and try the pepper they land on. 9 different peppers from no heat to on-fire will be on hand to sample. Each pepper variety has a heat rating (Scoville units). Show us your machismo that you can take our hottest: the habanero.

Habanero Peppers will be our hottest on trial with a rating of 200,000 to 350,000 Scoville units. The colorful fruit are disguised under the leaves. Next will be a hot ornamental pepper as our Cayenne peppers will not be ripe by the weekend; probably 'Black Pearl', though 'Sangria' is depicted here. Cayenne peppers have a heat rating between 30,000 and 50,000 Scoville units.

Pepper 'Serrano del Sol' has 8,000 to 23,000 scoville units.Pepper 'Numex Hot Wax' is very beautiful with a heat rating of 5,000 to 10,000 Scoville units.

Jalapeno peppers (cultivar 'Early Jalapeno' depicted) are well known and have 3,500 to 8,000 scoville units of heat. I can enjoy these in limited quantity!

Pepper 'Numex Joe Parker' rates as 1,500 to 3,000 Scoville units.

Pepper 'Ancho', a poblano pepper with a mild 1,000 to 2,000 Scoville units of heat.

Pepper, 'Sheepnose Pimento' is very mild at a mere 100 to 500 Scoville units.

Pepper 'Orange Bell' can really add beauty to a garden, as well as another zero Scoville units for those who can't take any heat.Our 'Lemon Drop' Peppers are very beautiful as they mature from purple to yellow on the opposite end of the color wheel. We can't find the exact heat index for this pepper: are you willing to give it a try? Hope to see you this weekend at the festival to enjoy the pepper plants culinary and ornamental contributions in the Heartland Harvest Garden. I can't wait to try all the salsas!